The invention relates to beds particularly for asthma sufferers sensitive to the House Dust Mite. The bed is designed to create an environment that reduces a trigger for asthma attacks, and to remind a user that: (i) good air circulation; (ii) regularly washed cotton material adjacent to the user; (iii) the inter positioning of a non-woven micro-porous membrane between the user and the natural scavenger, the House Dust Mite; and, (iv) a readily cleaned mattress, all contribute to an allergen-free sleeping environment.
The droppings of House Dust Mites (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus), translated from the Latin as xe2x80x9cskin-eater on a featherxe2x80x9d, are a known major cause of asthma symptoms and the cause of sleepless nights for asthma sufferers sensitive to the House Dust Mite. The Mites colonize many Household items, including mattresses and bedding. These Mites need damp and dark conditions. The Mites live on skin scales and produce feces pellets with a size of 10 to 20 microns. The metabolism of House Dust Mites can only digest the human skin scales, which are constantly shed by everybody, after they have been encrusted with a fungus that derives from mold found in damp dark conditions. Therefore, by maintaining dry clean bedding the fungus cannot grow on the skin scales thus denying the House Dust Mite of its major source of food.
Depending upon the size of the person, a human being can perspire up to about one liter of fluid each night. This provides the source of liquid for the mold to develop in bedding. The dark warm conditions of a bed also encourage the fungus to propagate on discarded skin scales trapped within the bedding.
It has been found that geographical distribution of the House Dust Mite which cause an allergic reaction in some asthma sufferers occurs mainly in countries lying in two belts lying above the tropic of Capricorn and below the tropic of Cancer.
According to an article on May 26, 1997 in Time and Newsweek, entitled xe2x80x9cThe scary spread of Asthmaxe2x80x9d it cites a 61% increase in asthma since the early 1980""s, however, deaths from asthma peaked in 1989 and have since shown a steady decline of 6%. A study sponsored by the UK National Asthma Council (now the National Asthma Campaign) in 1982 carried out by a team led by Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills concluded in a report published in The Lancet of Sep. 25, 1982 that: xe2x80x9cAvoidance of important allergens seems not only to result in clinical remission but in many cases there was a reduction of bronchial hypersensitivity.xe2x80x9d
The findings indicate that the major cause of asthma is from xe2x80x9cindoorxe2x80x9d air. xe2x80x9cOutdoorxe2x80x9d air pollution such as from vehicles is a lesser cause of asthma symptoms but considerable efforts are being made currently to reduce the emission from vehicles. This is expected to have little effect upon the incidence of asthma sufferers. Therefore the problem of asthma requires a solution to improve the quality of xe2x80x9cindoorxe2x80x9d air, particularly pollution caused by House Dust Mites.
The growing asthma problem in people sensitive to the House Dust Mite can be tackled by breaking into the chain leading to the distribution of allergens from House Dust Mites. Each of the following four actions help to break the chain:
(i) ensuring good air flow around the bed;
(ii) eliminating access to the mattress""s internal spaces;
(iii) providing readily washable bedding;
(iv) providing a pillow-slip inter-liner which seeks to prevent House Dust Mites and shed skin scales from entering the filling material of the pillow.
Additionally, the bedding should be regularly washed and aired.
The invention helps to facilitate the above four actions by:
(i) providing a bed that is held away from adjacent walls;
(ii) providing an air mattress on a slatted base;
(iii) utilising cotton bedding for covering the mattress to absorb perspiration and skin scales;
(iv) providing a non-woven micro-porous cotton pillow slip in which the openable side is sealed by a fine zip fastener.
It is known to provide beds with headboards that are wider than the width of the mattress or bed base. A substantially S-contoured headboard and similarly contoured footboard is known on a bed generally called a xe2x80x9csleigh bedxe2x80x9d which has non-planar endboards with straight top edges and sides. It is also known to provide beds with buffers, in the form of rubber cylinders, that displace the headboard or footboard about 2 cm. from an adjacent wall. Air-filled mattresses, and dust filtering cotton covering materials and cotton padding are also well known.
There is disclosed in De-U 8 633 219 a bed having a headboard which is inclined outwardly from the bed.
The present invention utilises a combination of features that have been found to substantially lessen asthma attacks in people sensitive to the House Dust Mite. A bed according to the present invention has a headboard and footboard that are inclined outward and extend laterally beyond the width of a support means for a mattress, to ensure that the first of the four actions listed above is achieved.
According to the present invention there is provided an allergen-avoidance bed comprising two end boards forming a headboard and a footboard, a pair of stringers for connecting the headboard to the footboard and a mattress base support for supporting an air-mattress, wherein, in use, at least one of the end boards is substantially planar and inclined outwardly from the bed at a first angle between 5xc2x0 and 25xc2x0 to the vertical, wherein the said one end board has an edge which is shaped to provide a curvilinear edge to optimise air flow around the end board.
Preferably the first end board is the headboard and the other end board is the footboard and is also planar and similarly shaped to the said one end board and inclined outwardly from the bed at a second angle to optimise air flow around the other end board.
Preferably, the end boards extend laterally by the same distance from the stringers so as to space the bed from an adjacent side wall to allow air flow around that side of the bed.
The first and second angles are preferably equal, and substantially at 15xc2x0, and the means for supporting the mattress is a series of parallel wooden slats mounted on two rubber coated fabric belts extending between a beam adjacent the headboard and a beam adjacent the footboard.
Both of the substantially identical plank-like stringers are mounted in parallel between the headboard and the footboard. The inside face of both stringers is provided with a rail on which the ends of the slats rest.
The stringers may be smoothly shaped along their length so that the depth of the stringers are greater at their ends than at their centre. The shaping may be achieved by making the upper edge to be curved at a lesser radius than the curvature of the lower edge.
The stringers may be provided with tongues arranged to pass through co-operating slots in the headboard and footboard and each held in place by a wedge engaging a hole in the portion of the tongue which in use protrudes through the footboard and headboard. Alternatively, the stringers may be secured to the headboard and footboard by brackets, screws, glue or other securing means.
The bed may be flat-packed. The pack may contain an air-mattress, a cotton covered quilt filled with padding consisting of cotton or easily washed and dried synthetic material. A cover for a pillow may also be included in the pack. Preferably the cover is made from a non-woven micro-porous fabric that prevents substantially all skin scales from passing therethrough.
The pillow cover is preferably closed on one side by a fine zip fastening. If a pillow is included in the pack it is preferably filled with an easily washed and dried synthetic material such as crimped Terelene(copyright), known types of hollow fibre material.
The bed frame is preferably constructed from wood that has rounded corners and is sealed with a wax finish or a clear varnish such as a non-allergenic paint like polyurethane.